Recently in Advocacy Category

The mainstream media loves to talk
about "work-family balance." It tells personal stories about how hard
it is to juggle deadlines and suppertimes, but rarely asks why that balance is
so hard, and how it can be changed. Often, motherhood is when today’s young
women first face serious job discrimination and the biases against mothers that
are built into American culture, family policy and many marriages.

This inter-generational panel
discussion seeks to shed light on discrimination against mothers in the
workplace and focus on what can be done to change things for the better. The
discussion is moderated by E.J. Graff,
WSRC Resident Scholar, and participants include Dana Gershengorn, Neena Pathak
(’08) and Mothers Movement Online
editor Judith Stadtman Tucker.

After more than a decade of fierce opposition
split largely along party lines, the New Jersey Senate passed a bill yesterday to
provide state workers with partial wage replacement for up to six weeks of
family and medical leave. Governor Jon Corzine has promised to sign the bill,
which was passed by the state Assembly on March 14, making New
Jersey the third state in the nation to enact paid leave
legislation (California was the first, with WashingtonState following suit in 2007). The
legislation was sponsored and tirelessly championed by State Senate Majority Leader Steve Sweeney (D-Gloucester) with
grassroots support from a broad coalition
of social justice, labor, and family & caregiver advocacy organizations,
including New Jersey
Citizen Action, ACORN, NOW NJ, National Family Caregivers Association, Mothers
& More, and MomsRising. The final version of the bill passed by a 21-15
vote.

Tax credits can provide thousands
of dollars to families struggling to make ends meet, but many low-income
families don't benefit from child care and family tax credits simply because
they don't know the credits exist. The National
Women's Law Center has created a set of tax credit fact sheets for child
care advocates and family service professionals to distribute in their
communities. Online
resources for parents are also available. Revised to reflect 2008 tax codes,
the latest fact sheets include flyers on state credits in English, Spanish and
other languages, information about federal tax credits, and a tool kit to help
agencies and advocates develop a community tax credit outreach plan. All
materials are available from the NWLC web site's Tax Credits
Outreach page.